A Fraud Exposed (UK Mail on Sunday)

One of the people whom the Argentine Government regularly trots out to the UN Decolonisation Committee in New York every year is Alejandro (formerly Alexander) Betts. A 4th generation Falkland Islander, born in Stanley, Betts claims that he left the Falklands after the 1982 conflict on political principle because he felt that Argentina had the stronger historical claim to sovereignty over the Falkland Islands.

Now the Mail on Sunday (article on 22 February - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2963510/Falkland-family-s-fury-father-sided-Argentina.html) has exposed that the real reason that Betts left the Falklands for Argentina was to live there with his Argentine mistress, Santina Toranzo - something that Falkland Islanders have long known. In doing so, he deserted his heavily pregnant wife, Rosa, and his baby daughter, Magaly. According to the Mail on Sunday article, Rosa states that Betts had always been pro-British when they were married, but since then had followed "whatever the Argentine government told him to do”.

He has since built up a close relationship with the Argentine Government, actively supporting their propaganda, and is a so-called adviser to them on Falkland Islands' affairs.

Despite his claim to have studied the history of the Falklands closely to reach his conclusion on the Argentine claim, Falkland Islanders cannot remember him as having the slightest interest in historical research whilst he lived in the Falkland Islands.

It will be interesting in the light of this publicity to see whether Betts is again paraded by the Argentine Government before this year's Decolonisation Committee as a Falkland Islander committed to their cause.